NOT Rocket Science

One of the things I love about education is the challenge of it. Since my first year of teaching 11 years ago, I remember reading and talking and asking lots of questions trying to find that elusive magic bullet. What is it that we can do to eliminate the achievement gap? It turns out it isn't that complicated. Here's the secret: do whatever it takes to make sure every student learns, every single day. If they don't, then re-teach in a different way and assess again.

Roland Fryer and Geoffrey Canada talk about this issue. Check it out:

www.aifestival.org/session/afternoon-conversation-geoffrey-canada-and-roland-fryer-jr

There are five things we can do to eliminate the achievement gap*:

1) More time in school.

2) Teacher quality

3) Using data to drive instruction – every 3 weeks, re-teach, re-assess, make sure kids get mastery

4) Differentiating instruction

5) Culture, expectations, accountability

(*research based data shows these five things are correlated with significantly reducing the achievement gap).

Now, if only we could get teachers on board with this....